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I finished my first build affectionally called "Rattler one" late last year. It took a year give or take. All domestic wood. Intentional low budget: $75 in mat and I am not sure how much in tools and miscellaneous stuff. You all know about that. If I knew how much I wouldn't tell. Sounds great. Learned a ton. I gave it to my second daughter for christmas. I told her it was special in two ways. It is special because it is the first and special because it is the one I started learning on and therefore made a lot of mistakes. Kind of like my first born daughter.
I have been bit by the luth-bug. I have a goal to build 5 this year. Two are started and they are ready to close the box on.

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Mark Ewing
Columbus Ohio
"Trees are an important and precious thing. We should build good things with them. Building good guitars with heart are the best use for them." K. Yairi.

Mark,

Congrats on #1 !!! My first instrument took me a very long time. I got it almost done and then I hit a snag with the fretboard. So a year isn't bad at all in my book!

Enjoy each build, goals are good, but enjoy the process too!

Joe

Nice. What is the top material?

Nice job Mark - great looking guitar and I am sure that your daughter is thrilled!!

The top is a piece of 2x12 red cedar that I found in a scrape bin at the lumber yard and cut down. $5. i re-sawed it by hand. The cedar was easy to hand saw compared to the walnut.

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Mark Ewing
Columbus Ohio
"Trees are an important and precious thing. We should build good things with them. Building good guitars with heart are the best use for them." K. Yairi.

Thanks. She was very moved. She knew how much time I had in it. One of the two I have going now is for my youngest daughter. I have 4. She is suppose to be helping me but doesn't seen to have much time.

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Mark Ewing
Columbus Ohio
"Trees are an important and precious thing. We should build good things with them. Building good guitars with heart are the best use for them." K. Yairi.

Nice guitar Mike.

Geeezzz....all those girls....

Mark...how are you?...you doing okay?

Totally off topic here but me and the family (1 wife - 1 boy) were at the ice cream place the other day getting a snack...and this minivan pulls up. Out jumps a wife and 5 girls....the dad was the last one to get out...and I immediately started chuckling. I have never ever seen a more destitute individual in my whole life. My wife started laughing too. They get in line behind us and the WHOLE time he was..."Kara don't do that...dont' do this...dont...stop...get away from your sister..."

After we all (his family included) received our orders and were sitting around getting ice cream all over everything....he strolled past me with his head down. I said...."hey man...you gonna make it?" He said..."If you have a kitchen appliance in your pocket I'll give you 50 dollars to hit me really hard with it right now!"



Mark I know you love your daughters and would do anything for them, but I had to relay that story to you. Your mention of daughters reminded me of it.

Chris

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There is no difference between the man that thinks he can....and the man that thinks he cannot.

5 daughters and a son here. All grown now and have families of their own. Couldn't be prouder, but it was a struggle at times.

I know sounds sexist, but son was easier than any of the girls. It seems when young didn't think it could be better, then teen age hit (about 12 yoa) and for those wondeful years I couldn't wait at times for it to end. One drama after another. Then low and behold college and families came and they changed once again. Now really enjoy them and can't get enough of them visiting and the grandkids. 16 of them 4 girls and 12 boys. We have our own golf and trout tourny's when they visit in the sujmmer. During summer always seems 2-4 of the grandkids here at any given time.

The time put in has been a blessing. Due to some recent issue's, I have found each of them reaching out and being there more than I could have imagined and couldn't be better.

Your guitar looks great. Sounds like you did a lot of the harder work like resaw and maybe other things the old fashioned handtool way. They just get better as you build.

Wow.... Same here. Good thing my son was the oldest of the brood.

Got quite a workout, that boy.


- Phil

Thanks for sharing that story. You and Stan both. I'm sure there were times when my head hung a little also. At the time I thought it would be like this forever. My youngest is a HS soph now and like Stan I couldn't be more proud of all of them. No grand kids yet. Guitar building seems to fill up some of the extra time that had been gone for 25+ yrs. I'm still working on the extra money that disappeared when we brought home the first. Wouldn't know what raising a boy would be like but I can't say I didn't think about it through the years.

Let me tell you a story. When we were bringing home the last girl, #4, from the hospital I said to my wife and I quote, "So, I guess we will have to adopt to get a boy." and she said with zero hesitation, "With your second wife." Message sent! Message received! Timing is everything.

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Mark Ewing
Columbus Ohio
"Trees are an important and precious thing. We should build good things with them. Building good guitars with heart are the best use for them." K. Yairi.

Ha! I'm still a newbie when it comes to wood ID, but ask my wife... I told her Cedar. She liked it and so do I.

You resawed by hand??

Just imagine what you could do with a bandsaw. Very impressive.

Mike